“I mean how would people like it if when the NDP forms a government we paint the prime minister’s plane orange, our party colours? I mean if you’re going to paint the country’s plane anything, you paint it the colours of the flag. I mean by an unfortunate coincidence those happen to be the Liberal party’s colours but so be it. That’s what we’re stuck with. That’s about all I have to say on that.”

NDP Leader Tom Mulcair promised he wouldn’t paint the Airbus orange if his party one day forms government.

The prime minister’s spokesman, Andrew MacDougall, says the paint job is part of the regular maintenance the plane undergoes every six years.

MacDougall says the new colour scheme cost an extra $50,000.

A spokeswoman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay says the added cost is only a fraction of the overall cost of scheduled work on the Airbus.

“By comparison, this incremental cost of re-painting this aircraft is really modest – it’s only about two per cent of the total maintenance cost,” Paloma Aguilar said.